Students Orgs. Forum

[sigil]

Heard that some law student orgs. allow incoming 1Ls to serve as 1L representatives. Anyone know how the time commitment of being a 1L rep. compares to being on the exec. board of a club?

......are leadership positions in student orgs. even worth it, or is it better to just stop by their events every once in a while?

[Holodigm]

Heard that some law student orgs. allow incoming 1Ls to serve as 1L representatives. Anyone know how the time commitment of being a 1L rep. compares to being on the exec. board of a club?

......are leadership positions in student orgs. even worth it, or is it better to just stop by their events every once in a while?

On the tours I've been on, they say 1L reps basically do nothing but make announcements in their classes. They know not to burden you with additional responsibility.

[haus]

It seems to me that few student orgs have much value, especially when compared to the potential headaches.

Then again, I may be a bit biased as I am carrying some baggage from grad school where I was sued by the student government president.

[sigil]

Awesome. Thanks, Holodigm. Kinda wary of too much unwanted stress, but I think the 1L rep. thing might be go.

Haus, dang... that sounds awful. I'm assuming it turned out alright in the end?

[Leonardo DiCaprio]

leadership positions at school orgs are 99% worthless. i guess they can serve as a talking point if you're straight from college with no work experience. but outside of journals, it's a waste of time.

i mean, if you have an interest in the org then go for it, but dont feel like you have to do it b/c you think it will help you in your job search or make you more marketable to employers. it wont.

"what?! he is the president of the corporate law society??? WE HAVE TO HIRE HIM!"

that shit never never never happens.

[acr]

I've grown to despise the representatives/presidents of student orgs at my school. Thousands upon thousands of worthless emails, fundraisers, events, and Facebook notifications. Don't be that person

[stretchedtoothin]

being the President of ACS/FedSoc/your affinity group (if URM)/LAMBDA definitely helps with OCI + some clerkship applications

[haus]

Haus, dang... that sounds awful. I'm assuming it turned out alright in the end?

Still riding it out. I was served the amended complaint last summer. I submitted a motion to dismiss (pro se). The plaintiff requested additional time to respond, it was granted. He then filed bankruptcy and the court stayed the case. One of the other defendants challenged the stay and it was lifted. The day before we were to have the hearing on the motion to dismiss, the plaintiff removed the case to federal court (I ended up eating the cost of my airfare for the trip to the court for the hearing). There is a motion pending to remand the case back to state court.

Sadly, my involvement in this case appears to be limited to comments I made on a web forum back in 2011. Who knows when it will end.

[Holodigm]

Haus, dang... that sounds awful. I'm assuming it turned out alright in the end?

Still riding it out. I was served the amended complaint last summer. I submitted a motion to dismiss (pro se). The plaintiff requested additional time to respond, it was granted. He then filed bankruptcy and the court stayed the case. One of the other defendants challenged the stay and it was lifted. The day before we were to have the hearing on the motion to dismiss, the plaintiff removed the case to federal court (I ended up eating the cost of my airfare for the trip to the court for the hearing). There is a motion pending to remand the case back to state court.

Sadly, my involvement in this case appears to be limited to comments I made on a web forum back in 2011. Who knows when it will end.

Sounds like either the attorney is milking that billable teat, or plaintiff is just fucking with y'all.

[sjp200]

I read an extra letter on the thread name and got very curious as to what was going to be in this thread. Then I was slightly disappointed to find out its about orgs. I'm still but a wee little lad at heart still.

But seriously, nah on the orgs for 1L. Focus on the GPA that will open up all the doors for law review/moot court/whatever your school considers an "honors" program.

[sigil]

Thanks to everyone for the responses. Definitely see a lot of good points for and against student orgs.

[sigil]

Haus, dang... that sounds awful. I'm assuming it turned out alright in the end?

Still riding it out. I was served the amended complaint last summer. I submitted a motion to dismiss (pro se). The plaintiff requested additional time to respond, it was granted. He then filed bankruptcy and the court stayed the case. One of the other defendants challenged the stay and it was lifted. The day before we were to have the hearing on the motion to dismiss, the plaintiff removed the case to federal court (I ended up eating the cost of my airfare for the trip to the court for the hearing). There is a motion pending to remand the case back to state court.

Sadly, my involvement in this case appears to be limited to comments I made on a web forum back in 2011. Who knows when it will end.

Sounds like either the attorney is milking that billable teat, or plaintiff is just fucking with y'all.

Gotta agree with that. 2011 is crazy long ago.

[DrSpaceman]

Student orgs can be a good thing if you get up with one that has substantial outside partnerships. These seem to be mainly the ones centered on affinity groups which are desirable to employers (Black Law Students Ass'n, Military groups, etc...) Special interest stuff like space law or whatever seem less valuable.

[sigil]

Student orgs can be a good thing if you get up with one that has substantial outside partnerships. These seem to be mainly the ones centered on affinity groups which are desirable to employers (Black Law Students Ass'n, Military groups, etc...) Special interest stuff like space law or whatever seem less valuable.

That seems to be the consensus. Can special interest clubs also end up limiting possible employment? As in... For example, someone joins the Health Law club and concentrates in that, but ends up wanting a job that has nothing to do with that.

[BigZuck]

Student orgs can be a good thing if you get up with one that has substantial outside partnerships. These seem to be mainly the ones centered on affinity groups which are desirable to employers (Black Law Students Ass'n, Military groups, etc...) Special interest stuff like space law or whatever seem less valuable.

That seems to be the consensus. Can special interest clubs also end up limiting possible employment? As in... For example, someone joins the Health Law club and concentrates in that, but ends up wanting a job that has nothing to do with that.

Leave it off your resume if you're really worried about it

[hairbear7]

I'm a 1L rep for two orgs and haven't really done anything so no it's not a huge time commitment. It didn't help my get any jobs but it certainly wasn't a negative. Join one if you'd like to!

[haus]

I think that it may be worthwhile to craft your resume/applications to put forward the best picture of yourself for the job(s) you are applying for. In some instances, that may mean leaving of some items in some instances.

Although in reality I doubt that something like this is unlikely to significantly hurt, unless it is squeezing out something that might help you more.

[sigil]

Thanks, everyone!

[Clyde Frog]

Thought this was titled "Student Orgy"

Nvm then

[haus]

Haus, dang... that sounds awful. I'm assuming it turned out alright in the end?

Still riding it out. I was served the amended complaint last summer. I submitted a motion to dismiss (pro se). The plaintiff requested additional time to respond, it was granted. He then filed bankruptcy and the court stayed the case. One of the other defendants challenged the stay and it was lifted. The day before we were to have the hearing on the motion to dismiss, the plaintiff removed the case to federal court (I ended up eating the cost of my airfare for the trip to the court for the hearing). There is a motion pending to remand the case back to state court.

Sadly, my involvement in this case appears to be limited to comments I made on a web forum back in 2011. Who knows when it will end.

Sounds like either the attorney is milking that billable teat, or plaintiff is just fucking with y'all.

Gotta agree with that. 2011 is crazy long ago.

Well, the Plaintiff is acting pro se, so the only people who might be making money of this are the attorney's representing the university which is also getting sued (although I suspect that they would love for this to be done with as the meetings to update the client have got to be awkward now that we are three years into litigation and we are just getting into discovery.

So far the case was brought in state court. The plaintiff then tried to have the case stayed because he was going through bankruptcy (this stalled things for several months) the court then found that the plaintiff's bankruptcy was not grounds for staying the case. Plaintiff did not like this and removed his case to federal court. The removal was contested by the defendants, and the plaintiff asked for several months (a year?) to put together an argument why it should be in federal court. The federal court did not approve of this request, and remanded it back to state court. Plaintiff filed two appeals in the federal appellate court (with eventually denied), he then requested that the bankruptcy court take over the civil case (or at least to have the case stayed), this was denied.

This got us to motions to dismiss. Some of the defendants had all claims dismissed. I was among those who had 13 of 16 claims dismissed (defamation, violations of the state civil rights act, and IIED remain), and the school still has a few remaining claims pending.

The attorneys for the school were on the ball and put in their discovery request right away. Over six months after answers were due for the request for documents and interrogatories the Plaintiff's responses had not yet been received. When the school started to rattle the cage and threaten to complain to the court he did respond (in a manner) although the responses were almost entirely devoid of content.

Last month I received a request for documents and interrogatories from the Plaintiff. After several days of tinkering with this, I put together a response for the request for documents that was a little over a thousand pages (my home printer was working overtime), I still have a bit over a week to get the interrogatory response completed.

I do not know when this will come to a close, but I am settled in for a long haul.

[totesTheGoat]

leadership positions at school orgs are 99% worthless.

Disagreed for 2 reasons.
1) School orgs are usually pretty awesome networking devices. If you cold call a partner at the best firm in town and ask them out for a cup of coffee, the reception is going to be a bit... icy. If you cold call the same partner and invite them to do a presentation to 30 1Ls and then join you for a cup of coffee after, they're going to say yes more often than not. Some orgs (the ones with national backing) are better at networking than others, but they're all better than spamming coffee invites.

2) Occasionally, you'll run across a firm that has a certain culture aligned with your org. For example, if you're head of the LGBT law student group and interview at a firm that is very supportive of LGBT advocacy, you may end up striking a chord with them. I had something similar happen with an org that I was in leadership for. Talked about nothing else but my membership in that org for the first half of the interview and ended up getting an SA with them.